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ENCODE consortium today published one in nature and 28 papers in genome research involving 35 groups from 80 organizations around the world, which promise to reshape our understanding of how the human genome functions. The findings totally challenge the tidy collection of independent genes , but sees as a complex networking system, along with regulatory elements and other types of DNA sequences that do not code for proteins, interact in overlapping ways not yet fully understood.

“This impressive effort has uncovered many exciting surprises and blazed the way for future efforts to explore the functional landscape of the entire human genome,” said NHGRI Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “Because of the hard work and keen insights of the ENCODE consortium, the scientific community will need to rethink some long-held views about what genes are and what they do, as well as how the genome’s functional elements have evolved. This could have significant implications for efforts to identify the DNA sequences involved in many human diseases.”

Loads to come out of this …. few days back in nature cell biology there was a article stating small peptide regulators of actin-based cell morphogenesis encoded by a polycistronic mRNA in an eukaryote…

In Bangalore Bio 2007LabIndia has introduced SOLiD: Sequencing by Oligonucleotide Ligation and Detection which is the Future of High Throughput Sequencing.

“This is useful for those who want to do full genome sequencing. Whole genome projects will be more cost effective with this new instrument than they are today,” said Dr. Anupama Gaur, Team Leader Application Support, Labindia Instruments, Pvt. Ltd.

HistoGenetics has come up with Sequence Based Typing which has many advantages such as identifying many rare and new alleles. “Nearly 2000 alleles have been identified so far and it has been launched in the US and UK as of now” said Dr. Cereb Nezih, M.D., President and co-founder, Histogenetics, Inc.

When trying to figure out how different respond to drugs and other environemnts in the body scientists turn to cells. The cultured cells are grown in petri dishes now with the onset of tissue microarrays the process is getting more advanced

A new Brown University study shows that nerve cells grown in three-dimensional cultures use 1,766 genes differently compared to cells grown in standard two-dimensional petri dishes.

The research shows that culture techniques can significantly affect cell growth and function. cells grown in a laboratory in 3-D environments are more like cells grown in the ultimate 3-D environment – the human body.

“More and more, we’re seeing evidence that cells cultured in three dimensions look and behave more like cells in your body,” said Diane Hoffman-Kim, the University of Brown bioengineer who spearheaded the new study,

Like this:

Imagine a diabetic patient from NewYork being put on a drug regimen distinct from a patient London. Personalized medicine allows tratement to decided on the genetic make up of the individual. Genetically europeans and asians and others have different ways of responding to same treatment genetically

FortunatelyIf Indian researchers have their way, such customised medication based on genetic differences could be a possibility for a range of illnesses.

A consortium of Indian scientists recently completed a genetic database for India, home to one of the world’s most ethnically diverse populations that will allow researchers to understand the genetic predisposition of ethnic groups to diseases. Icelanders are considered for Human genome project because of very less number such diversity

The genetic map will enable global and Indian pharma companies to enhance research on predictive medicine and targeted drugs. Research firm TCG Life Sciences is about to become the first private player to use the database.

The consortium collected data on the genetic codes of over a 1,000 genes from among 15,000 individuals belonging to Indian sub-populations

Another user of the data is the clinical diabetics’ consortium, which aims to identify if there are specific genetic reasons for a particular ethnic group to be predisposed to the disease. It is already known that some cultures are pre disposed to certain diseases so Indian are more prone to heart attack and diabetes and such

The Indian Genome Variation Consortium, a public-private partnership that networks six Council of Indian Scientific and Industrial Research labs and some private software firms, undertook the genetic variation mapping.

claiming to help not just the volunteer, but for the future generation to come the £61m UK Biobank project will track the health of thousands of people for up to 30 years.

Information and DNA gathered from volunteers will be used by researchers to help tackle serious diseases.

Volunteers will be asked to attend an assessment centre where they will fill out a lifestyle questionnaire, have body measurements such as bone density, blood pressure, height and weight recorded, and donate a small sample of blood and urine for long-term storage as a resource for researchers in the future.

Researchers will study the relationship between our genes, our lifestyles and our current health to find out why some people develop certain illnesses and others do not.

It is hoped the project will eventually include 500,000 volunteers from across Britain, making it the biggest study of its type ever undertaken.

The Biobank will run alongside the complementary Generation Scotland project, which focuses on how genes inherited from our parents affect the likelihood of developing diseases.

Data collected by the two projects will be used to help prevent and develop new treatments for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, mental health illnesses, osteoporosis and arthritis.

I am not promoting anything here but I thought it was an intersting news aswell as nothing short of odd considering the recent and ongoing news pages spend on discussing hollywood and famous fatherhood battles inside and out of court this is one kind of an offer that Chromosomal Laboratories, Inc. a leading DNA testing laboratory, has announced that it will repeat its offer of five free paternity tests, a $2000 value, to fathers and alleged fathers as a special promotion to celebrate the upcoming Father’s Day holiday. Interested parties should contact Chromosomal Laboratories by June 14th to be entered into the drawing. Five fathers will be chosen at random to receive a free home paternity test kit.